Thoughts on Henry’s return, his impact and Swansea

On Monday evening Arsenal played against Leeds United at the Emirates in the F.A Cup Third Round. We saw the return of Thierry Henry, last week the former Arsenal Captain signed a short-term loan deal with the Gunners from MLS side New York Red Bulls. Henry was making his second début for the club and it only took him ten minutes with coming on as a second-half substitute to score the only goal in the F.A Cup tie. It was incredible scenes at the Emirates seeing the Arsenal legend returning and making an instant impact, you just knew Henry was going to score.

A host of Arsenal players have spoke about Henry’s return and you can tell his return has made a big impact at the club. A player of Henry’s calibre and quality can have a massive influence on the younger players at Arsenal. The likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ryo Miyaichi can learn so much from Henry, even Theo Walcott can whilst Henry is back at Arsenal. Just having Henry in the first-team dressing room can give players a lift and the teams morale as well.

“It’s thanks to players like him that we all improve, he is one of the greatest players to have played football and the squad needs to look up to him in the next two months to improve.”

“Maybe he has missed the atmosphere here, at the Club and the stadium”

“We can see at training that he plays like if he was 20 and as if he had just broken into the first team.”

“He wants to score, to help the team and to improve.”

Just by reading Koscielny’s quotes about Henry you can tell what his return has done to the first-team. Like the French defender said he did lead by example on Monday and hopefully he can do it against Swansea on Sunday. Some people said Henry’s return could have a negative affect because of his ego but at the moment it’s been a very positive return.

This current Arsenal squad has the best team-spirit we’ve seen for a number of this seasons summer signings like Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker have helped a lot. But you could say the main reason is down to Robin Van Persie being captain he has shown he is a real leader this season for the Gunners.

Arsenal next play against Swansea on Sunday in the Premiership at the Liberty Stadium. I’ve been impressed with Brendan Rodgers’s side this season, I like the way they play football similar to Arsenal. Swansea have done well this season since getting promoted to the Premiership from the Championship last season. They like to pass the ball around as well and have the likes of Scott Sinclair who can cause most teams problems. It will be interesting to see what Arsenal are like without the ball on Sunday and how they are pressing and winning the ball back.